If we trade any productive major league talent because the timeline isn’t here yet, then the timeline will never be here
Yes, I do lol. We have been absolutely terrible and traded away a HOF talent to do so. Are we better off without Soto? I mean, ultimately ownership wasn't going to pay him so he would've walked regardless but we aren't a better team because of it.
of course, I'm in the other camp. I favor trading at least some of your chips when you are building, and that you judge a build by the talent on the field, record, and length of control.
I didn't have a problem with the idea of trading expiring assets in 2021 and 2022. I would have pushed hard to sign both Turner and Soto, and think that signing Turner would have increased the likelihood of signing Soto. I think the Turner situation was pure cheapness and there's no way a deal couldn't have been done. The Soto situation was harder and I understand the call that Soto by himself wasn't going to make the team middling with an outside shot at the playoffs (quibble - before Henry and Cavalli were hurt, there's a case that we would have had some solid starters to go with him). Generally, the 2021 deals just flat out stunk in terms of return ("if only Aldo Ramirez were healthy" /s), while the problem (if any) with the Soto return was that some of the assets would get to the end of team control before the rest were ready. Just because we are reaching the stage of pay or trade those expiring assets doesn't mean the concept of trading high on players for depth and potential future stars is a bad one.
